Highways bosses say the experimental closure of a lane of traffic along one of Leicester's busiest streets is not creating more congestion – despite complaints by motorists.

Leicester City Council wants to create a wide promenade along Newarke Street to extend the "New Walk experience," and has shut one of its three lanes to see what impact the scheme would have on traffic flow.

A number of drivers have contacted the Mercury to say the move has increased rush-hour congestion and caused queues.

But the council said its traffic monitoring sensors told a different story.

Congestion and traffic flow has been compared before and since the lane closure, which began on January 7 – and the authority said the levels remained roughly the same.

Andy Thomas, the council's head of traffic management, said altering the sequence of traffic lights had compensated for the loss of the lane.

He said: "It's like taps flowing into a basin. You have to adjust the taps to control the flow.

"Drivers will insist they are waiting longer in queues – and on the first day of the closure there were some problems.

"After that, we were able to manually intervene with the computer-controlled sequences to keep the flow moving.

"We would give the lights extra time on green when needed."

From November 5 to 8, underground sensors at the southern end of Southgates underpass recorded between 1,750 and 2,000 vehicles an hour between 8am and 9am.

The figures were largely the same for January 14 to 17 – also Monday to Thursday – when the lane closure was in place.

Mr Thomas said recordings from Causeway Lane and Oxford Street showed similar trends.

He said: "There will always be some congestion because it is a busy road but, largely, it is not worse than it was."

Some drivers were sceptical about the findings.

Haroon Ahmed, 43, of Newfoundpool, Leicester, drives down Newarke Street daily to get to work.

He said: "You can prove anything with statistics but I have the same routine every day.

"I leave the house at the same time each morning to get to work and since that lane got closed, I've been arriving later.

"It can be quarter of an hour. Don't tell me it is not worse."

Angela Southon, 40, of Leicester's West End, said: "It's definitely more congested. It isn't unbearably worse but it is worse."

The lane closure was lifted during the snow and ice and reinstalled on January 28.

Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said the trial would continue for a "few more weeks" before he decided whether to make the closure permanent.

He said: "I am assured by officers that although there may be a perception congestion is worse, the evidence does not show that.

"When managing traffic, it's the capacity of the junctions that is more important than the number of lanes.

"There has been problems, such as delivery drivers blocking lanes, but that could happen on any road.

GK33Harb: I'll take the insult as your acceptance that I'm right :-P
Typical ignorant attitude really: I'm right, your wrong now shut up!! Maybe if you older, wiser folks got over yourselves occasionally and listened to the younger generation, you might just realise how much you've tied yourselves in knots.
Oh and just for info, I can and do on occasions drive, I use the car for long distance and infrequent journeys. I use hire cars on the occasions I need one, rather than out right ownership. I chose to purchase my home based on work and social requirements and that factored in how I would like to travel to work.
It would be very easy for me to buy a car and drive 10mins to work but I took the decision to cycle for health and money reasons. The fact it takes me slightly longer and occasionally means I arrive to work wet, is a small inconvenience. Something too many people are unwilling to do.
I'm in no way saying that absolutely everyone should give up their car, what I am saying is when justifying the use of the car to yourself.... is it REALLY justified?? Just think, even if only 1 in 5 people started to either cycle, walk, use public transport or even arrange a lift share you cold reduce the number of cars on the road by 20%.
Oh I forgot to mention GK33Harb, I have a BMI of 20 and that's without having to slave away in the gym or conform to some ridiculous diet regime. Have a nice day fella :)

@bikerdan Wow, I see all that exercise has done wonders for your mood, calmness and rationality. Why don't you go for a nice long bike ride and leave the grown ups to debate grown-up things? Why are you even weighing in on this debate if you don't drive?

It isn't though is it, people will always find an excuse to take the easiest route, then complain about how fat they are, how much they spend on petrol, how much time they spend in queues, how rubbish public transport is etc etc etc.... in other words, excuse after excuse to justify using a car.
Congestion wouldn't be an issue if more people used public transport, public transport will improve because more people use it.. See how much easier the world could be if people stopped obsessing about their cars and using any miserable excuse they can find to justify using it??
Bully for you choosing to live 6 miles from a shop, i didn't ask you to put yourself in that situation! So stop moaning at me when you pay a fortune for petrol or have to wait in your box doing nil miles an hour because you and too many other people are too lazy to break a sweat!!

If it's not had an impact, why are the queues back along to Vaughan and StMargarets Way being regularly reported on local traffic bulletins????
Close any lane on a three-lane road and there will be congestion. It's not hard to work out.
I'm sick of these village style politics where councillors treat the population like pond life.

Some of the people on here really do make me chuckle, the ones complaining the most are probably the ones that will happily tell us about how great Britain was in the old days, when you had to walk 3 miles to school in snow drifts.
I will make this please to you lazy so and so's, if, when you look down, you can't see your feet, its probably time to stop thinking about convenience and your beloved car and get your lazy bums out on the streets and use your legs and feet!! The government can't fix the obesity problem, all you lazy fat people obsessed with your cars and convenience are the only ones that can fix it!!! If not for yourselves, do it for your children.